 Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our webinar today. My name is Robert Cummings and I will be the moderator for this exciting student panel with our student guests here. And I'm happy to kick us off to start. If anybody has any questions feel free to use the Q&A feature in the webinar. And we will start with just a brief introduction to the programs that we offer and then dive right into our student panel discussion and I'll have our student panelists introduce themselves in just a minute. So to start off, the MIT SCM program offers two programs, two programs of study one is the SCM residential program and the other is the blended student program. We have students from both joining us today so they can provide their insights into into both tracks. First the residential program offers a 10 month on campus experience. It is designated for early career professionals. So those who have two to five years of work experience and are looking to get a more specialized training in supply chain management and then return to to the workforce with that new information that you've learned. And with that in mind we offer custom career development and dedicated recruiting opportunities in the fall and the spring as well. And for international students on this opportunity also comes with OPT and STEM extension work authorization. So it's a great opportunity to continue your career here in the US. On the other side we have the blended program. This was developed as an alternative shorter program with the option for nontraditional students who may be much further in their professional or academic careers and are looking for that subliminal training to sort of re-energize their career outlook and possibly advance to further positions in their own organization or return to their previous employers with that new found outlook. With that in mind the blended program combines an online component of the MITX MicroMasters. So you would begin those five online classes, obtain the MicroMasters and then apply to the blended program where you would continue your studies here at MIT for one term between January and May. So just a five months out of the workforce, which gives you a little bit more flexibility to take a spatical or leave of absence or to transition to a completely new career if that's what you have in mind. So that just sets the stage of the two program pathways we have. And just to outline that more in terms of the timeline of each program for the residential program, the onboarding period is from March to July. Since it's just a 10 month program, it is rather intense in terms of preparation over the summer and then jumping right into our orientation in August, which includes introductions to our research program, recruiting prep, you have the analytical background to really hit the ground running in the fall. For the fall and spring terms, you would have in person classes here at MIT, dedicated supply chain classes along with classes from the Sloan School of Management and the School of Engineering. We have career coaching research project that we mentioned earlier, and then a experiential study track that happens in the spring. Along the way in the January term, which we call IAP, we have a three week period of collaboration with our scale partner centers, students from Europe, Asia, and Latin America come to MIT to engage in this three week long period where we have workshops, guest speakers, and a very large research expo symposium of your research experience so far. And all of this culminates with the completion of the program in May and your MIT degree. Along the blended pathway, it begins a little bit different as you would complete the online MicroMasters at your own pace anywhere from 12 months up to 18 months as the usual duration, but you set your pace. And we have two exams throughout the year, one around November and one in May, to be able to apply to the blended program upon completion of the final CFX exam as a component of the MicroMasters. Once you apply or admitted to the blended program, you would then start the same sort of intensive pre-work period as our residential students, but you would do it fully remote. So that begins with identifying your research project, working with company sponsors and advisors remotely and joining our webinars. So it does take some commitment in that pre-work stage just before arriving to MIT in January. Once you do arrive in January, just as I mentioned before, you would begin your compressed orientation but then join right in with the rest of the program for our Scale Connect, connecting with our residential students that are on campus, and the students that we bring in from across the world to have that global network experience. Finally, moving into the spring term, both cool forwards combine and enjoy the same spring term experience, full-class load from MIT, more career coaching opportunities, hopefully solidifying those job offers before moving out of MIT, finishing your research projects and all that culminates with the presentation of your work so far. Both degrees, both the blended and residential, and with the same MIT degree, a master of applied science in supply chain management for most students, or a more advanced master of engineering for those who are looking to take on a much more strenuous research approach to their project. So with that in mind, just setting the stage, this webinar will focus mostly on life at MIT and the student experience. So with that in mind, we have five student guests, and I have up here are our four student ambassadors and we have one additional guest, Lauren Konopinski who has kindly joined us as well. Sorry, I didn't include your picture here, Lauren. But with that in mind, we will have brief introductions from each of the students to say like where they've been and how they joined the program here. And then we'll dive right into questions. I have some questions to get the ball rolling, but we are more than happy to take any sort of questions from the audience to really get a good sense of their experience, why they chose MIT. So with that, I will stop sharing my screen. And why don't we pass it along to Liam first to just introduce yourself, and then continue from there. Awesome. Sure, hopefully you can hear me okay so then kind of a public space but hi everyone. My name is Liam. Great. So I grew up in Austin, Texas for the past five years before the program I lived in Boston. On the other side of the river, working at Accenture, mostly in life sciences, supply chain consulting roles. I was a supply chain major undergrad, worked briefly there as well. And so I came to MIT to kind of hone the hard skills and kind of improve my technical skills and have been hopefully improving at that in the last semester since so I'll pass it off to what was nice. Nice to meet everyone. Thanks, I can go next. Hi, everyone. My name is Leah. I was born and raised in China, and I did undergrad at US Indiana University, double major in supply chain management and information systems. Prior to MIT, I work at a commons as a power solution company for the year for four years at the senior planning analyst. I'm kind of from Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah. Yes, it's my turn to introduce myself. Good morning, everyone. My name is Elise Frederick. I grew up in a small town in rural New Hampshire. I studied supply chain management and marketing at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Prior to joining MIT, I was working in aerospace and defense for Pratt and Whitney doing materials management for one of our international military customers. And that is just about everything. I actually made the full move to Boston from no longer in my current position. And I live in the city and I'm hoping to stay here after graduation. Elise, Jason Maine here. I'm from the Midwest and the United States, a little town called Des Moines, Iowa. I'm a non-traditional student in my undergrad. I didn't start until I was in my mid 20s. I really studied supply chain management and accounting, double bachelor and both supply chain and accounting really kind of got my passion for supply chain in my earlier careers. That led me down this path. It's very winding to get here, but currently work in the utility sector, have some background in analysis and commodities management, as well as my most recent role, as a program manager of our warehousing. Great. And I'm Lauren Panipinsky. Nice to meet everybody. I am from Chicago, Illinois. I did my undergrad at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Champaign and double major like Leah in supply chain management and information systems. So prior to coming to the program, I was with VP. I joined through like a graduate rotational development program in marketing and sales finance and supply, and then most recently was working in like the digital transformation space within our supply and industry division. I am part of the residential program here at MIT. Excellent. Thank you everybody for giving your introduction and your recent job, your recent jobs that you had prior to joining the program. So one initial question to just jump right in is what made you decide to come to MIT? Why did you apply or what specifically drew you to a master's degree at this point in your life? Well, I'm thinking up to anyone who wants to start. I can start with, oh, go ahead, go ahead, at least the first. Sorry, I feel like everyone wants to jump in at the same time, but I'll make mine brief. I am in a transition period. Actually, in my career, I'm using this master's degree to pivot the direction that I'm going or the discipline within the supply chain umbrella, which I focus in. But what drew me to MIT specifically is the opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant minds in this field. I'm just constantly in awe of the research that not only our professors, but the partners of the CTL have been able to accomplish, and I wanted to study under them. So that was really what drew me to this program. And I did choose to do a master's in supply chain, as opposed to a more general degree, because I've found that this is the field that I'm very passionate about. And I wanted to make sure that I was the subject matter expert and in all things supply chain going forward. So that is what drew me to this program. So I think I hinted on this a second ago, but for me, I wanted to first be in a program that was only one year. So as a big pull for me, I think for me at one year is perfect and the tier MBA is a bit too much. But the other thing that drew me was, for me, it's a nice blend in this program of kind of a supply chain business perspective and engineering perspective. So a lot of our coursework is in Sloan, but a lot of it is for engineering as well. I felt like in consulting I was working on a lot of soft skills and presentation skills and those kind of things for a long time, but I hadn't had a chance to actually like learn from a bit more of a technical perspective. And obviously, there's no better place than MIT to do that. So that was one of the big pulls for me. It's that kind of line between business and engineering. Yeah. Oh, go ahead Leah. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'll be quick. So yeah, the real, I think the biggest reason for me to join MIT this program is because my managers, they graduate from this program, both of them. And back to comments where I work, there are several colleagues, they all of them actually come from this program. I work with them a lot on projects and very impressed by their knowledge and their talent. I know that supply chain is something that I want to say I want to be a subject matter like Lisa mentioned, and I know I'm doing supply chain master. So and it's a one year program. I don't need to spend two years, it's good that's too long. And I can get my payback, the payback period is quite, quite short. So that's why I come to here. Lauren, go ahead. Yeah. So I first heard about this program through the supply chain excellence program. So MIT works with some undergraduate supply chain programs across the US and offers a scholarship so that was something that I had kind of on my radar since graduating from undergrad. I don't know if anyone on the call is from like a participating university but if you have any questions and Jason is a fellow fellow supply chain excellence student so if anyone has questions about that feel free to ask. Yeah, really, just finally wrapping this up echoing everybody's sentiments that the short term of the program is is highly motivational for, at least for me. I also was the participant in the supply chain excellence program, where I had a professor who got his master's got his PhD here. And I was considering a traditional, you know, masters of business analytics, something like that. And he said really if you want to make a difference as a practitioner in the industry. Go with the master supply chain from MIT so I had, you know, some incentives from the short term of it, you know having been a non traditional student I was already behind the eight ball. Like, in terms of getting my career because I changed at the age of 32 what I was doing so that's been a big part of it and then just, you know, like we said some of the most brilliant minds are here and the things that they're unlocking and looking at and solving are amazing and it's nice to be a part of that. That's great thank you everybody for your pure insights and I know that is a. That's probably the, the hardest starting point for prospective applicants to decide if they're ready to take the plunge and invest the time and money to join the program so I think you've offered some great examples of your success so far. In that same vein, one great question that we have from a guest online is what do you wish you had done before joining the program. So is there something that could have prepared you more or something that you would have done differently. Before, before getting to this point. I have one right off the bat. If you're not me coming from a non traditional role my background is actually law enforcement spent a 10 year career dealing with with people in a correction setting. I did not have a ton of research experience. One of the hardest things for me has been diving into academia, in terms of research papers. I didn't have to do a ton of that in my undergrad. So it was a skill set that was not really very rough. We owned for me. So I wish I had spent a little more time studying that and being a little bit better at diving into the research side of things. I feel like that would have been more helpful. Another one. I think I would say if you're depending on where you're at in your life and when you think you want to go back to school, if this is something that you're going to pursue, I would just say to think about it early. I wish that I had kind of shortly after graduating undergrad undergrad just buckled down and taken the GMAT or the Jerry and gotten it out of the way, so that that wasn't a barrier to entry. I think it would have been easier when I was fresh out of school and used to studying. And those scores last for a little bit so you can kind of see when you want to take that. And just in terms of like research and looking into programs I did explore like MBA programs going back part time, looking at a few other programs around the country. It's a good amount of research so I would say just start early. So you're not pumping up to deadlines. I'm going to go ahead out of bed. At least. Go ahead again. My mind is not necessarily something that I wish I had known or would have changed, but it's actually something that I would encourage others to do. I am a blended student like Jason. I did the five micro masters courses before going through with the application process and I had done, I took no breaks in between and taking those classes and applying to the program. And I think that that was a real asset that was a real benefit to me because I had all the knowledge that I had just learned. And I'm just carrying it right through until graduation in May and I feel like that quick timeline really did help me so I would encourage all of you who are considering the blended route to try to work that schedule so that you do the five courses in 18 months or whatever is a good timeline for you and then go right into the program. There are some people who took some pretty significant gaps. But I think that it would benefit you in the end. If you did it more at an accelerated pace. Awesome. Yeah, I was just going to say like, echoing Lawrence, it's a long process from application to entry and everything whether that's like an MBA that you're looking at or this program but just start early if you're worried about doing it know one year the next year it's just apply this year and if it doesn't work out like you have the next year versus you know if you're your life and it's your only chance where it makes sense in your career. That's not as optimal so just if you're thinking about all I'd say get started early. It's a long timeline. And there's nothing specific from a skill set that I think you need to like practice early I think to at least this point like it's helpful. It's all fresh in your mind it'll definitely make it easier for you like if you're great at Python it'll make it easier for you if you've created all the topics and selection courses. But don't be stressed if you have taken them a little bit, you can always catch up as I've had to do but it's definitely helpful. It's tough to mine. I don't add to Elise's point. I am a residential student but I actually completed a micro master before I joined the program. It's really good for you to understand a get a taste of what the program is like and what the professors in style was your knowledge level. And once you get if you are going to do residential and you take a micro master you're actually able to wave some of courses. I'm definitely will help you get ready for the program. I think one last thing to to Elise's point about the timing of it. I did it in 10 months. I had just graduated with my undergrad and supply chain management and accounting. The pandemic hit and I was on a timeline so I hit the ground and I ran and I ran as fast as I could. I took up to three courses at a time. It was a very rigorous load. I would spend six, seven hours a night working on the coursework. So remember to take it at your pace if you need to do two or three years, because that's what your finances provide or your timing because you have other obligations family, whatever. You know, make those adjustments but the quicker that you can do it the better the more knowledge I think that you'll retain. But you may not, you may want to not do it in 10 months, because everything just gets smushed together like that and you might have some knowledge that doesn't stick. Thanks for the insight and along Jason's earlier point, and a question that we had from the audience is regarding if the program is more research oriented or practical oriented. And I will say that from my perspective that is one difference of doing the supply chain management program versus an MBA is we are in the School of Engineering so we do have a very applied science approach to to education so the research project is a required component of the program blended students are able to propose projects in the admissions process and potentially bring them to MIT residential students get to select projects from our partners are research here at the Center for Transportation and Logistics, but in either case, definitely we're looking for students who are interested in committing to that 10 month long research experience and I don't know if any of you have any comments on your research project so far I think you've reached the halfway point now. Hopefully maybe a little bit further. If you have any thoughts on that. Maybe just one comment on my end. Sorry, Liam, do you want to go. No, no, go ahead. Okay, I was just going to say I depending on the path you take if you are doing a capstone project and depending on your research partner so I'm partnered with a company right now. It is a research project but it can feel very kind of practical it's pretty familiar to some of the stuff that I worked on when I was actually working with a company, other than the fact that we're pulling in research and pulling in kind of the existing literature and knowledge on the topic and I guess increasing the scope to try to add something to the discourse and discussion around the topic. So the nitty gritty details of the project itself is pretty similar to things that you could work on if you're in the supply chain industry so that's a cool aspect. Yeah, I was just going to say, and you've probably heard this from Robert and seen on the website but you have the choice residential program right to choose a thesis or a capstone I think from that question the thesis is more, you know, research focus the and the capstone is really in my mind both because it's hard research then hard applying it practically with the company and that problem that they brought through, you know, MIT so it's either, you know, your focus is purely on research maybe the pieces is right for you or if you want that practical element while still getting the research kind of blended into that and I think the capstones are a nice fundable and you have the choice of which of those two options you want to pursue. Excellent. So with that in mind. One follow up question is what sort of research resources would you recommend. I would say that during the program itself we do offer, you would have an advisor here at CTL so you would have a research, a dedicated research mentor who would help along the way and many of our companies have also done projects in the past so there's a good support there in terms of actually writing and putting together the components in both the fall and the spring students take supplemental writing classes to be able to hone your writing skills as well. So those are just additional components to the to the research process overall. Great so one additional question that we have here is. And this I think is actually a very good one is has your career outlook changed at all from when you originally applied to now that you've gone through the program a little bit further. Did you always know that you wanted to do a like job X and now going through the program, you actually got an offer from job why and it's much different than you would have thought. So any thoughts there just on your career journey so far. So I'm still in the process just for transparency sake I'm still in the process of applying I have not received any offers yet. But I will share that I came from a very structured industry aerospace and defense not a lot of wiggle room. It's very, very rigid because you're working on behalf of the government. I'm in class now which opened my eyes to the possibility of working for humanitarian organizations and doing logistics for them. And that is not something that had ever been on my radar before but it's something that I'm seriously considering now because of the applications that we've had in class and and the benefit that I see. Actually, I'm really passionate now about using the skills that I'm learning in school to help others in a way that I didn't think that was possible. So that certainly has changed for me. I don't know, you know, if I'll end up pursuing a career, but I know that there are organizations who are looking for volunteers that have supply chain skills. And I think that that would be something that I continue on after the program even if it's not in the formal package of a job offer. I'll go next I guess I think for me it hasn't changed it so much just because I came from consulting and I plan to return the consulting space afterwards but I definitely used it to sort of pressure test first of all like is this something that I continue to do because we have the chance to see lots of firms come in and given possessions and alumni come in and give kind of more details about the role and what it's like and for me it was a good way to pressure test that this is something that I want to do but I will say that it has kind of enhanced it from a perspective like I in my essay wrote that I probably will, you know, return to consulting but with a whole host of skills that I didn't have before, and hopefully the ability to kind of climb through the kind of consulting ladder a lot more than I did and if I didn't have that so I think for me it's it's definitely enhanced it but as far as like the outlook it's been able to remain pretty steady for me as far as thinking what I want to do when I come into what I'll end up doing when I come out. I can go next. So my background was in automotive industry and prior to the program I was open for anything I want to try maybe tech and or consulting, it's definitely one of them, but I'm open for everything so I prepared both like a lot of interviews and a case interview, and I ended up consulting offer so I guess that's where I'm going to go from up the program. And I know that I have many friends in this program, they were in, like, at least set up for me and they are looking for opportunities and I know some friends they work in Microsoft before and they are looking for more sustainability role. So the resource in MIT programs a lot, it can definitely help you to switch gear to go to the industry you've never been before. Yeah, maybe just echoing Leah's point my background is in the energy industry. I will caveat this with again I don't know where I'm going after the program still exploring and still recruiting and looking at returning to my previous company so a lot of open doors at the moment. But one thing I really appreciated about the program is just getting exposure to what supply chain and supply chain roles could look like in different industries. I think it would have been hard without coming to a program like this to make the leap from oil and gas into another industry, without this kind of stepping stone I have gotten feedback that my resume reads very oil and gas, and my experience so it would have been hard to do on my own and I've appreciated just opening that those doors I guess. Just wrapping about today, it has tremendously changed for me personally, just because of I'm in the utility sector, my capstones on my company I'm planning on going back to that company. But it did give me an appreciation for the other opportunities that do come out of this program. And then a piece of that question that I don't know that we really touched on is one of the biggest benefits. It's the four other people that are sitting on this call with me. The cohort that you join into when you first joined the residential program is going to be about 41 other people but when we blend together with blended in the residential. It's going to be 81 of some of the smartest peers that you have from across the world, and the program staff. Robert, Len, John, Justin, they all are so tremendously helpful as well as the research faculty. It's one of the biggest benefits of the program that you get that exposure and then building that network it's something that I'll emphasize now but when you get here, they will emphasize over and over and over again. Thanks just thanks Jason that is definitely one hallmark of our program that we definitely pride ourselves on and I'm sure all of you on the call can probably can probably list at least a dozen alums that you've already heard with or heard from over the past five to seven months and that network is really very important to build those connections and learn from others and then pass on the skills so I'm sure we'll have all five of you back in some capacity in the future, as well for the next class that may be watching right now. So sort of along those lines of the connections or somewhat non academic components in the program. Have there been any activities or opportunities that you've explored at MIT in Boston in Cambridge that you feel like are worth sharing I know it's a. Keep within the bounds of our program in e 40, but there is definitely the Sloan School of Management and lots of programs and offerings throughout MIT. Any that come to mind that you would like to share. So for me a particular interest being in the utility space it's something that I'm a little bit fascinated by is the research on nuclear fusion that's going on here on campus. There's a tour that our group is going to be taking a little bit later with some of the nuclear program. That's just super fascinating as as we move away from more dangerous technologies in the power space. You know or those technologies that are contributing to climate change. That's something that I've been watching for a long time and keeping a close eye on. I think it's super interesting and I love that it's it's on the same campus that I'm on right now. Yeah, sort of bad, like, I think, taking your perspective, Robert outside of the academics of our program but sort of an academic overall I think you have a lot of opportunity to explore, especially the kind of years credits to play some of your other projects. But what I've loved about having access to the rest of MIT is unable to explore some of those so for example I worked in karma karma clients for a long time and so life sciences is a space early like last semester I got to take a completely unrelated class to anything else I was working on but it was on the kind of principles and practice of drug development so it's with a bunch of cross redistributed like Harvard PhDs and applied math students and like bio majors and a few business majors the only supply chain person in that class but supply chain came up a few times in the context of you know drug manufacturing. So I got to learn some helpful insight but I think that was an awesome way for me to just sort of bring myself like in a whole different direction on campus and explore something new and kind of like challenge myself that way but it's like you know it's a world class professor that teaches it it's an amazing class so it basically speaks to the network in the power of MIT that you have access to by doing this program and so if you have some other interest outside of supply chain. Like Jason just mentioned or for me kind of life sciences the opportunity to explore that you know at the best university for science and math that's that exists. So a couple random things for me I think to Liam's point a lot of opportunities within the grounds of the university and I've enjoyed just being back on a campus. I've joined like a graduate women's book club. So kind of trying to take advantage of making my own schedule and having a bit more freedom than I did during work life. And that's been a fun way just to meet people outside of this program to Robert's point we kind of get stuck in a supply chain or Sloan bubble. It's been really cool to all your classes are with and your focus, but it's been really cool to meet people studying and getting like PhDs in biology just things that I wouldn't have come across normally so that's been interesting. Very random one but it's been nice having a student discount again. There's a lot of different things you could take advantage of with that so yeah just having a student card is fun. Yeah, I think even as staff members I just went to the museum of fine art last weekend, which is free so it's actually great to be so closely connected to the city that you can explore those things as well. And even one thing that I, even though I support the supply chain program even I've done lectures and gone to talks one of my favorite was actually on exoplanet exploration from the aeronautics and the aeronautics department. So it's like, completely different than anything I've ever done but it's very I found it, I find space very interesting so that that was one of my personal experiences. Great. So one other question we have here. We talked a little bit about our connection to Sloan and you've all mentioned that you have classes with Sloan students as well. Has there been any sort of cross campus collaborations or projects that you've done entrepreneurship maybe if you if anybody has any thoughts from IP on the different entrepreneurship sessions that we offered, or any of the competitions done so far. Yeah, I mean I would just say, and other people can chime in too but most of your, like Sloan work is a lot in projects and so when you're in a Sloan class, whether, you know it's like a finance based class or accounting or I think we all have some different classes in Sloan but there's no distinction between really like you are an SM student and you are a Sloan student it's just like find a group, you know, four or five to do your assignments or do your cases or to do your projects and so it's really on you I mean if you want to only work with supply chain students that's definitely an option but in usually like you try to have a little bit of a mix to have one or two Sloan students on a team of five or one or two SM students for example so you have complete access to Sloan in that sense in terms of your cases and all of your classes projects. And then some of the more like outside of class opportunities like Delta D for example is a big entrepreneurship startup competition. You're more than welcome to know reach out to Sloan students or find an engineering student it's totally up to you. But yeah I think you know a good portion of your curriculum is in Sloan and when you're in there everyone is sort of together as a student that doesn't need to it doesn't feel like a separated that you don't have access to Sloan students or you can't work with them it's pretty much everyone's in the same boat. Yeah I will say one benefit, and on the other side curse of the program is that there's no restriction in terms of, there's no restriction on the number of classes you can potentially take up to the limit that we have within the program. So you can explore classes outside of MIT are outside of SCM or even MIT if I don't know if anyone here took a Harvard class or not. There's always that allure but we try to keep you close by. There's plenty to still do at MIT. Great so I don't see any other questions yet. But one that I had that. Sorry Robert there was the one Carol asked earlier about major trends on the job market's demand on SCM talents with skills quantities are they looking for. That was something that I wanted to I was hoping that we'd get to get one of the things that I took before I finally settled on my schedule took operations management course, and one of the things that they talked about within the first few days. Typically, the CEO, like the trend of CEO is that they typically come from a very operationally focused area. But then within that if you look like the number two field behind that with supply chain management from their functional perspective. I think it's supply chain especially with the pandemic one of the things that it's shown us is that there will not be a shortage especially with the increase of global trade and other things that are going on and developing supply chain skills are coming out of premium. And you know how to think logistically and that you can problem solve things that that other people have looked at and said well that's not important, but then it ends up becoming critical I think that that's something that's going to be extremely valuable. Those are specific skill sets. I don't know that there's any one area that I would target or say was more important or different than the others but definitely realize that this is going to make you a very marketable professional. Yeah, and I think that is actually an interesting point in terms of the program like our ability to be somewhat resilient to changes in the industry. You might envision large institutions like this moving at a slow glacial pace but the SDM program has been able to adapt and add new methodologies and tools on just this year we added power BI for example, in terms of visualization tools. Within the past two years. There's been a real focus on machine learning. We've incorporated elements of Python as well. So, we are very attuned to the trends and just this year will be reaching out to our alumni to see over the past 25 years of the program what sort of skills have been the most valuable or what do they see as a future trends that we can act upon. And that's why we we introduced the machine learning element. So, so much in the recent in recent years. So I think these are all elements that our program is definitely always changing so if you ask an alum from five years ago, they would have taken some different classes or different focuses and then the ones that we have now, then the four of you that are here with us. So, I don't see any broad questions, but one that I can leave us with as people think, or we could start wrapping up the webinar. I'm just a little bit early if there's no other questions. We sort of talked about this earlier. I think that you would give to an incoming student or somebody who is thinking about joining the program. And then I can close with my, my thoughts as well of what we're looking for on the admissions committee. I'll start. So, as someone who is in a transition period in their career as I've mentioned, I would encourage incoming students to think long and hard about what they want their careers to look like after graduation from the program. And cater your class schedule to really support or help you achieve those goals. I can guarantee that you might be overwhelmed by the number of course offerings that interest you and you might be really inclined to just take all of them. And I actually thought that it was tricky to narrow it down or to, I guess, cut down the number of credits that I was taking because there were so many courses that I was interested in. But at the end of the day, how I framed it is, you know, what's going to help me in my career moving forward or what's going to help me in this next step. So that would be my biggest piece of advice for incoming students. I can go next. I think one of the piece of advice I would give is just if you're unsure, like just apply. I mean if you have any doubt, definitely go for it, I would say. Don't be afraid that it's going to be like a waste of your time or the chances aren't good enough or something just just definitely give it a shot. The other thing is I think you can't do it alone as far as the application process or just make sure like you have people that are going to be able to really support you in rec letters, right, even working with or that you've been reporting to. If you have any peers that have gone through like a business world mission sort of master school missions process like talk to them, reach out to them for advice on what they learned from the program. And make sure like you use all the resources around you. And make sure that you're not just sort of silent on your own as you apply and kind of get all the help that you can, but I would say those two things are what come to mind for me. And one thing is to not afraid to ask for help, no matter as current like previous students or cohort. Initially, I was kind of raised asking people just to help me understand the program more. Because it's wasting my just taking me a lot of time, but everyone's willing to help you they would love to give you advice and help you meet. Don't worry, don't hesitate to go for it. Another unique advantage, and that two of my classmates from undergrad had actually gone to the program before I did. And they subsequently ended up being the ones that were pestering me about joining. If I was going to be applying for the program. They reached out and said hey you know, would you like to or you think about it. And that brings two is one of the CTAs that was instrumental to my learning during the MicroMasters also went through the program. And like Leah said that network of ask questions learn have somebody you know, could you read this letter for me or read my proposal for me. That's actually what Danielle did for me she I wrote a proposal for my application and she was there and willing and very insightful and helping me to kind of tune that. I definitely did not get into MIT by myself. I had a vast network, my wife was very supportive. My family is very supportive. And then all of my peers that helped me to be here today are the reason that I am here today I definitely did not go alone so I think that's the point that Liam brought up it's crucial is remember that you are not in this alone. Ask questions ask for help and then you know, I'm certainly willing to, if you guys want to reach out, find me on LinkedIn, run any questions by me. I'll answer anything for you. Excellent. Thanks so much Jason and yes one resource that we like to do a little shout out for is definitely our student blog, where you can see stories from our current students and previous students as well. And sort of navigate their experience here at MIT reasons to to apply. And the possibility to also reach out to them. So just wrapping up one additional note in terms of application tips, the tips that our student analysts have provided are definitely 100% in line with what we are looking for as well. Two other smaller components to keep in mind when you are submitting your application. One is our video statement. It is very helpful for the admissions committee to get that sort of two minute snapshot of why you want to join the program. And we definitely asked that you really try to be yourself underline there avoid reading a script we want to see like why you're joining the program what you hope to get out of it. If you have a minimal just joining a zoom call and recording it is definitely fine. It definitely helps our program out and and gives a better perspective on on why, why we should admit you. Another important aspect that we that's worth highlighting is just your resume. Since work experience is a component of the program to yours minimum, just making sure that you meet that requirement in some way. Without the resume make sure that it's clear identifying your experience when it was so that we don't have to hunt for the information too much on it should be that one one page concise information, which is what will really help us review applications. And with that we have three admission rounds for the residential program and two for the blended program. We're approaching our final rounds in both so for residential applications you can apply by March 28 so we have a few weeks until then, and for the blended program as we mentioned, our application deadlines line with the micro masters program. So the next deadline will be in June, following the, the May CFX run. And with that, I would like to say thank you to our panelists. Stop sharing. Thank you to our panelists for joining here. And of course, anyone online or watching this video afterwards, feel free to reach out to us at scm at MIT.edu, and we look forward to reviewing your applications or answering any questions in the future. Thanks again. So pretty good luck.